Direct Instruction in Reading Comprehension.

T he recent report by the National Commission on Reading (Andersorr et al. 1985) concluded: Direct instruction needs to be distin guished from questioning, discussion, and guided practice Direct instruction in com prehension means explaining the steps in a thought process that give birth to com prehension It may mean that the teacher models a strategy by thinking aloud about how he or she is going about understand ing a passage. The instruction includes information on why and when to use the strategy Instruction of this type is the surest means of developing the strategic processing that was identified earlier as characteristic of skilled readers (p 72)